A FarFetched Tail
by elyadme
Summary: The Doctor is always complaining about Rose bringing home her 'pretty boys', but what does he do when he falls in love with one too?


"No. Absolutely not." The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest, glaring down at his companion.

"But just look at him! He obviously has no home to go to; we can't just leave him shiverin' in the rain!"

"Rose, I'm not havin' you bring any more of your little pets on board!"

"Just for tonight? I'll find a proper home for him tomorrow." Rose looked up at the Doctor with her big brown eyes and put on her most innocent face. "Pleeaase?" she begged. He could never resist that face.

The Doctor sighed in defeat. It was plain cheatin', that look. "Fine. But he's your responsibility! I'll not have anything to do with it."

Rose squealed with joy. "Thanks, Doctor! He's so cute, I couldn't just leave 'im." She flashed a grin at the Doctor as she walked past him, clutching her bundle to her chest, as she headed into the depths of the TARDIS.''

* * *

"I think I'll call you George, because I'm going to hug you and love you all day long!" Rose cooed, cuddling the little bundle as she walked towards the kitchen.

The newly-named George was a shaggy puppy of indeterminate colour. Rose had noticed him cowering from the rain between the TARDIS and a trash bin when she and the Doctor were on their way back from visiting with her mother earlier that afternoon. The little dog had given a half-hearted thump of its tail when it saw people approaching, and Rose was instantly smitten.

When they reached the kitchen, Rose was mildly suprised to see that the TARDIS had left a towel on the counter and had even managed to find some silver dog bowls. She filled them with water and some leftover Ernk* steak, and toweled George dry while he ate. *(The Ernk is a tripedal herbivore native to the planet Veutna. It resembles a three-legged cross between an Earth llama and goat, with a long, lion-like tail.)

"Is that my Ernk steak it's eating?" came the Doctor's voice from the doorway. George whimpered and dragged his steak around the corner of the cabinets, out of sight of his tall, menacing presence.

"He's not an 'it'. His name is George, and you're scarin' him, goin' on like that!" Rose shot the Doctor a defiant glare.

"Oh, we're givin' it names now are we?" The Doctor took a looming step forward into the room. "I was lookin' forward to my Ernk steak."

"It's been in the freezer for eight months."

"There's only one planet in all the universe that has Ernk."

"It's the only meat we have at the moment. If it's that big a deal, why not just go there and get more?"

"Ernk're extinct now."

Rose rolled her eyes, not giving an inch. "Time machine?"

"Hmph." The Doctor glared as he slid onto the kitchen bench. "We got anythin' fit for people, or're you only caterin' to those in fur tonight?"

Rose smiled inwardly to herself. It wouldn't do for the Doctor to think she was gloating. Really, he could be so childish sometimes! "I was going to try a stir-fry with those veggies the Xarine farmers gave us, but if you're that set on steak, I guess we can just wait until we can get some."

The Doctor muttered something unintelligible as he grumped over to help Rose peel the vegetables.

* * *

After dinner, Rose took George back to her room and gave him a nice warm bath. The TARDIS surprised her again by providing a sweet-smelling dog shampoo. Rose wondered for a moment if she should be wary of why the ship was being so unusually accommodating, but decided not to knock a good thing and put it out of her mind. She discovered upon rinsing a thick layer of suds off the puppy that he had a beautiful bright yellow coat. Combined with his floppy ears and big puppy grin, Rose decided he must be at least part golden retriever. 'And part trouble!' she giggled, as he shook out his coat, spraying water all over the walls and Rose.

After a brief tug-of-war with the towel (George won, of course), Rose carried the puppy back to her room. He instantly jumped up on her bed and sat at the edge, looking up at her with his big puppy eyes and tongue lolling out, his tail thumping against the blankets.

"Just a minute, you impatient pup!" she scolded gently, turning to change into her pajamas. George yipped and pranced a small circle for her.

As Rose got into bed, George cuddled close under her neck with a sloppy good-night lick to her chin. She grinned fondly down at the puppy and whispered "I wish I could keep you." With that thought, she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The Doctor was in the console room, making repairs to his frankly marvelous time ship, as he was wont to do while his companions slept. At least, he was supposed to be making repairs. After the third time he unplugged and reattached the same power coupling, however, the TARDIS grew exasperated and blew a shower of sparks at him.

"Oi! What'd you go an' do that for, you barmy ship?" The Doctor barked, more startled than anything.

The lights dimmed and the humming of the TARDIS took on an ominous quality.

"Of course I know what I'm doin'! I've fixed your chronometer plenty of times!" The Doctor pulled himself out of the mess of wires under the grating to glare at the time rotor of his frankly quite annoying time ship.

There was a questioning chime and the decking rumbled gently. His TARDIS was laughing at him!

"Well, if you're gonna be all uppity about it, I'll just let you keep it, then. And then _you_ can explain to Rose why we're runnin' for our lives from Aztec priests tryin' to sacrafice us instead of havin' a nice dinner with the prince of Greater America."

The TARDIS merely rolled her 'eyes' at him by dimming a column of the lights on the wall in wave around the room as the Doctor left.

The Doctor decided to head for the library and finally sit down to read the Discworld series that he'd been putting off for a couple of decades for no particular reason. Perhaps the offbeat humour would get him out of his current funk.

All of a sudden he heard an unfamiliar noise. He paused trying to identify it. There is was again! He couldn't place the sound, but he was certain he'd never heard anything like it on his ship before. He looked around to see what part of the ship he was and sighed - of course it would be the hallway with all the bedrooms. _Fantastic._ He waited for the sound again to narrow down its source.

_**SKTCH SKTCH SKTCH SKTCH**_

The Doctor sprinted down the hall, fumbling for his sonic screwdriver.

_**SKTCH SKTCH SKTCH SKTCH**_

The whatver-it-was was in Rose's room! With eyes hard as steel, the Doctor leveled the screwdriver at the noise and kicked the door in.

Rose screamed, startled awake by the noise. "What the HELL are you doing, Doctor?"

The Doctor slowly lowered the screwdriver, studiously not looking at Rose.

George looked up at the Doctor from where he sat on the floor in front of the door. He whined slightly and gave a short wag of his tail.

"I...um... just checkin' ship security procedures. Everthin's nice an secure now, Rose. You can go back to sleep." He wasn't feeling heat rise in his face. Time Lords most definitely did not blush. "I think this wanted out. I'll...uh...just take it with me. So it doesn't wake you up again."

"_George_ didn't wake me up," Rose grumbled as she pulled the covers over her head and went back to sleep.

The Doctor picked up the puppy and decided that it might be prudent to visit the garden room instead of the library.

* * *

"Right, then." He set the puppy down on a grassy patch. The Doctor crossed his arms as he glared down at the puppy. "This is your area. You do not eat my bushes. You do not dig up my flowers."

George yipped an affirmative.

"You do not chew on things unless they are given to you to chew on. You do not jump on the furniture. You most definitely do not go anywhere near the center console!"

George yipped his acceptance.

"You do not bark unless spoken to."

George wagged his tail silently.

"Your name is not George."

The puppy's tail stopped, his ears drooped and a low whine escaped his throat. He looked up at this tall stranger who could for some reason speak Dog with the saddest puppy eyes he could manage.

"Your name is gonna be Chrono. Much more appropriate for a time-travelin pup!" A manic grin spread across the Doctor's face as he bent down to scratch the ears of his new companion. Chrono's tail went wild as he jumped around the Doctor, trying to lick all of him at once.

* * *

The next morning Rose woke to find the puppy gone and her door hanging crooked in its frame. The events of the previous night came flooding back to her in a rush. 'If he abandoned that poor puppy again, I'll never forgive him!' she thought furiously as she threw on some clothes and ran off to find the Doctor.

She tried the console room first. The grating was pulled up and wires were strewn about everywhere. Rose wondered what would've made him leave in the middle of his tinkering like that. She shrugged; he hadn't been here for hours, so best to keep looking. She tried the kitchen, the swimming pool, even the garden room with no luck (though apparently George, at least, had found his way to the last at some point). Finally, Rose noticed the guide lights running along the floorboards were flashing - the TARDIS was trying to lead here somewhere. She followed the lights and eventually ended up at the library door.

Rose pushed the door open slowly, unsure of what she'd find. Right in front of the door was a small pile of rawhide bones. Scattered about the floor were all sorts of dog toys: squeakers, ropes, balls, chews - just about everything she could think of. 'Looks like someone did a bit of midnight shopping,' she thought to herself. As the astonishing sight sunk in, she began to notice the light snoring noise coming from the sitting area by the fireplace. On the floor next to the sofa was a bright blue dog bed, but it didn't look like it'd been used yet. She noticed why when she looked at what was lying on top of the sofa. The Time Lord was sprawled over the cushions, limbs akimbo, with one arm lazily draped over the puppy curled up on his chest. The puppy's head was resting on the Doctor's arm. He wore a shiny new blue colour embroidered with the word "Chrono" across the back. They were both snoring lightly. Rose bit back a laugh at the sight of the Oncoming Storm cuddled up with the cute little puppy, that he in no way whatsoever was going to keep. She selected a random book from the pile on the table and settled into the recliner to wait for them to wake.


End file.
